After the battle of Magnesia (190 B.C.), which cost Antiochus the Great the whole of his dominions north of the Taurus, the Romans made Antioch a free city. In 39 B.C. Mark Antony gave it to king Amynt'as, after whose death in 25 B.C. it became a city of the vast Roman province of Galatia. At some time before 6 B.C., Augustus raised it to the rank of a colony — Pisidarum colonia Ccesarea (Pliny, HN v. 24) — and made it the governing and military centre of the southern half of the province. Its importance increased when the first emperors found it necessary to pacify the ' barbarian ' high- landers of Pisidia. ' In the mountain-land proper no trace of Hellenistic settlement is found, and still less did the Roman senate apply itself to this difficult task. Augustus did so ; and only here in the whole Greek coast we meet a series of colonies of Roman veterans evidently intended to acquire this district for peaceful settlement' (Mommsen, Provinces, i. 336 f.). Roman roads connected Antioch with all the other colonies founded in the district — Olbasa, Comama, Cremna, Parlais, and Lystra. The work of pacification was in especially active progress during the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54), in which St. Paul visited Antioch. The city was not yet ' Antioch in Pisidia' (AV), being correctly styled by Strabo ' Antioch towards Pisidia ' ('A. ■^ irphs llta-iS/^ koKov- ixiv-q [XII. viii. 14]), in distinction from Antioch on the Mseander ; but St. Luke already calls it 'Pisidian Antioch,' to ditt'erentiate it from Antioch in Syria. The boundaries of Pisidia gradually moved northward till it included most of Southern Phrygia, and then ' Antioch of Pisidia ' became the usual designation of the city. At a still later period Pisidia was constituted a Roman province, with Antioch as its capital.
On the South-Galatian theory, in the form ad- vocated by Ramsay (Church in Bom. Emp., 74 fl"), Antioch is regarded by St. Luke as belonging to the Phrygio-Galatic region (t7)v 4>pvylav Kal raXan/cJjj' X'^po-v, Ac 16*), Phrygian being a geographical term and Galatic a political, the one used by the Greeks and the other by the Roman government. In Ac 1823 the region is simply called ' Phrygian,' and if, as many think, ^pxrylav is here to be taken as a noun, the sense is still much the same (see Galatia and Phrygia). St. Paul's first mission to Antioch
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was so successful that the whole political regio of which this colony was the centre soon heard of the new faith (Ac Vi^]. In no other Asian city, except Ephesus, was the influence of his preaching so far- reaching. His success was no doubt in great measure due to tiie strong Jewish element in the population, even though it was Jewish persecution that compelled him to leave the city for a time (Ac 13'^-s"). The early Seleucid kings settled Jews in many of their cities, and gave them the same civic rights as the Greeks, finding them to be trusty supporters and often real Hellenizers. Antiochus the Great settled 2000 Jewish families in Lydia and Phrygia (Jos. Ant. XII. iii. 4), many of whom must have found a home in Antioch. Trade doubtless attracted others to so important a centre, and thus the Jewish leaven had been working for a long time before Christianity was introduced. Ramsay thinks that ' the Jews are likely to have exercised greater political power among the Anatolian people, with their yielding and easily moulded minds, than in any other part of the Roman world' (Hist. Com. on Gal., 193) ; and their spiritual influence Avas at least as great. St. Paul found many ' devout proselytes ' in Antioch (Ac \Z^), and his presence attracted ' the whole city' to the synagogue (13**). While the native Phrygian type of religious feeling was more eastern than western, and thus had a certain natural affinity with the Semitic type, the Phrygian Jews, whose laxity gave deep oflence to the rigidly orthodox, no doubt increased their power among their neighbours by their freedom fi'om bigotry. The attraction of the Jewish faith for Gentile women (ras a-e^ofi^vas yvvalKas, Ac 13'*) was a familiar theme in ancient writings (Juvenal, vi. 543; Jos. BJ II. xx. 2) ; and the influence of ' women of honourable estate ' (ras durxniJ'-ovo-^), not only in Antioch but in Asia Minor generally, is one of the most striking features in the social life of the country (Conybeare-Howson, St. Paul, i. 219; Ramsay, Church in Bom. Emp., 67). Strabo [loc. cit.) mentions another fact which may help to explain the rapid progress of Christianity in Antioch : ' In this place was established a priest- hood of Men Arcaius, having attached to it a multitude of temple slaves and tracts of sacred territory. It was abolished after the death of Amyntas by those who were sent to settle the succession to his kingdom.' This drastic action of the Romans had removed one of the greatest obstacles to the new faith — the vested interests of an old and powerful hierarchy.
Literature. — F. V. J. Arundell, Discoveries in Asia Minor, London, 1834, i. 281 f. ; Conybeare-Howson. St. Paul, do. 1872, i. 204 f. ; W. M. Ramsay, Hist. Com. on Gal., do. 1899, pp. 196-213, Church in Rom. Emp., do. 1893, passihi ; J. R. S. Sterrett, Wolfe Expedition to Asia Minor, Boston, 1888,